Robert and Adele Schiff Awards in Poetry and Prose

The Cincinnati Review invites submissions for the annual Robert and Adele Schiff Awards in Poetry and Prose. One poem and one prose piece (fiction or creative nonfiction) will be chosen for publication in our 2018 prize issue, and winning authors will receive $1,000 each. All entries will be considered for publication in The Cincinnati Review.

RULES

Writers may submit up to 8 pages of poetry or 40 pages of a single prose piece, per entry. Previously published manuscripts, including works that have appeared online (in any form) will not be considered. There are no restrictions as to form, style, or content; all entries will be considered for publication. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable under the condition that you notify us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere. As the contest is judged blind, no contact information may appear anywhere on the manuscript file. Files that do include identifying information will be rejected unread, and entry fees will not be refunded (though you’ll still get your free subscription).

TO ENTER

The entry fee is $20, and includes a one-year subscription to The Cincinnati Review. Multiple submissions are welcome and come with additional yearlong subscriptions, which can be used to extend your original subscription or given as gifts. We will be accepting submissions only via our online submission manager, through which you’ll pay the entry fee. Again, please do not include the writer’s name or any identifying information in the manuscript file. Instead, in the “comments” field at the bottom of the entry page, enter the writer’s name, mailing address, telephone number, email, and the title(s) of the submitted work(s). Also, be sure to use the “genre” tab to indicate whether your submission is poetry, prose fiction, or prose nonfiction.

(If you log into your Submission Manager account and see that your contest entry is marked unpaid, don’t panic and, above all, don’t pay again—due to an issue with our payment gateway, we’re having to reconcile all entry fees by hand. Since it’s the summer, and we’re in and out of the office, it might take us a few days to get to yours.)

SUBMISSION PERIOD

Submissions will be accepted from June 1 until July 15July 19 [extended deadline] at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Winners will be notified October 1, and an announcement will appear on our website. Winning entries will be published in the Summer 2018 issue, which comes out in May.

CONTACT INFO

If you have any questions about the contest or problems submitting and/or making payment, please email editors[at]cincinnatireview[dot]com, and we’ll get back to you shortly.

CLMP CONTEST CODE OF ETHICS

In keeping with the CLMP‘s contest code of ethics, we’d like to inform you of the following:

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Our selection process:

We ask all entrants to omit names or other identifying information from their files. If such information is included, that entry will not be read and the entry fee will not be refunded (though that writer will still receive a free subscription).

Then, we also use the “blind” feature on our submission manager to remove the author and cover letter sections from view of our screeners and judges.

In the first round of judging, the screeners for each of the two contest tracks (poetry and prose) pick 15-40 pieces to send on for the next round of judging. With the “blind” feature still in place, Poetry Editor Don Bogen judges the poetry contest, and Fiction Editor Michael Griffith judges the prose contest.

As with our regular submission policy, current and former students, faculty, and staff of the University of Cincinnati are ineligible to submit unless they are more than two years removed from their affiliation with the university.

About The Author

Since its inception in 2003, The Cincinnati Review has published many promising new and emerging writers as well as Pulitzer Prize winners and Guggenheim and MacArthur fellows. Poetry and prose from our pages have been selected to appear in the annual anthologies Best American Poetry, Best American Essays, New Stories from the South, Best American Short Stories, Best American Fantasy, Best American Mystery Stories, New Stories from the Midwest, and Best Creative Nonfiction.
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